Let’s keep our mentally ill youth out of detention

Let’s keep our mentally ill youth out of detention

Published 6:30 am, Sunday, December 12, 2010

In just three years, Harris County has made vast improvements in the county's juvenile justice system. The catalyst for many of these changes is an initiative launched in 2007 and funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation to develop alternatives to juvenile detention in Harris County.

The initiative is showing promising results. Between 2007 and 2009, referrals of youth to the county's juvenile probation department dropped 14 percent. The number of youth placed in residential centers after adjudication fell 42 percent. Commitments to the state's juvenile corrections system dropped 62 percent. Meanwhile, juvenile crime has dropped significantly in Harris County.

Local agencies, courts and community groups have worked together to achieve these positive results.

The Harris County District Attorney's Office now defers prosecution of juveniles who commit a nonviolent misdemeanor offense for the first time. Since February 2009, more than 2,300 youth have been placed in a community-supervision program instead of going to court or detention. The program has a 90 percent success rate and has saved an estimated $1.5 million.

Juvenile courts are allowing more youth offenders to live at home while getting supervision, services and treatment in the community when appropriate and safe for the public.

A special court docket created in 2009 for juveniles with mental illness offers rehabilitation programs that link youth and their families to services and treatment in the community. As of November, 32 of 41 youth in the program had successfully completed it, at an estimated savings to the county of $240 a day per youth, based on the cost of detention.

Agencies and nonprofits are providing programs for high-needs youth in the juvenile justice system and their families, such as daily after-school supervision, mental health treatment for youth, and family therapy to address underlying issues that contribute to the youth's behavioral issues. MHMRA of Harris County, for example, provides assessment, individual therapy, family counseling and medication management to as many as 600 youth in homes, detention centers and alternative schools each month.

Yet even with all these improvements, the system has too many young people in it. Nearly 20,000 youth were referred to the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department in 2009. Referrals through October this year have reached 15,076.

It's time to set our sights on lowering the number of youth entering the juvenile justice system, and mental health is a critical factor that cannot be ignored. Nationally, a large proportion of youth in the juvenile justice system — between 50 percent and 75 percent - have at least one mental health condition. In Harris County, the estimate is 52 percent.

Why is mental health a factor? When left undiagnosed and untreated, a mental illness or emotional disturbance can cause symptoms and behaviors that get adolescents in trouble in school, at home or in the community. Parents, teachers and other adults who work with kids may not realize that negative or delinquent behavior can be a sign of mental illness. Even if they suspect mental illness, many families don't have the insurance, money or eligibility to get help.

Zero-tolerance policies in schools often criminalize adolescent behavior tied to mental illness. A report, to be released soon by law center Texas Appleseed, says minor infractions such as cursing, disrupting class and truancy used to be handled by the school principal but are now treated as misdemeanors or worse. Earlier reports from Appleseed revealed that a disproportionate share of minority and special education students are being suspended and expelled from Texas public schools for noncriminal, nonviolent offenses.

Severe responses such as ticketing, suspension and expulsion inappropriately punish and alienate youth, especially those with untreated mental illness, and increase their chances of dropping out or becoming involved in the juvenile justice system.

Instead, what many of these young people need is services, such as assessment, diagnosis and treatment, at home, in school or in the community. Studies show this approach leads to better outcomes for the child, the family and the community. It's also less expensive than putting youth in the juvenile justice system.

Providing these services in schools makes sense because that's often where symptoms of mental illness or emotional disturbance begin to emerge. However, the Houston Chronicle reported Nov. 29 that only a handful of schools in the Houston area offer mental health services, due in large part to lack of funding for mental health professionals and services.

Fortunately, there are other options. Foundations and nonprofits are providing mental health services for kids and their families in schools and in the community. For example, in 2009 the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health awarded eight grants totaling $7.8 million to local nonprofits to provide mental health services in high-need areas of Houston and Harris County. Over three years, an estimated 10,000 kids and their families will receive mental health services in schools, day care centers, homeless shelters and other community sites.

MHMRA of Harris County is partnering with several school districts to provide mental health services to youth and their families at school. This enables them to get the services they need, when they need them.

Finally, many schools are adopting programs to reinforce social and emotional wellness instead of relying on punitive policies that don't work. Ideally, these programs begin with kids at a very young age and focus on setting standards, teaching expectations and modeling positive behaviors. One model, called Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, is proving especially effective in helping administrators and teachers address challenging behaviors of students in a positive way. Region 4 Education Service Center in Houston is leading a statewide network to expand the use of this model in Texas schools.

The bottom line is, we can help many young people with mental health conditions avoid the juvenile justice system. The key is to identify and diagnose mental illness as early as possible and provide youth and their families with resources, services and support at home, in school and in the community. Let's work together to build on our successes by reducing reliance on the juvenile justice system and finding ways to do more of what we know works.